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Archive Material
(1st/2nd Editions) - coming soon
Links (Official, Fan
Sites and Potential Research Sites)
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The e-mail lists serve as open forums where
Players, Narrators and anyone else can discuss the game in its
various forms and participate in e-mail based online games.
Rules discussions, game concepts and other ideas are freely traded.
A small amount of rules interpretation and clarification is also
provided by lead game designer Rick Don. Both lists are hosted
by Yahoo Groups, providing an archive of previous postings and
discussions.
The following summarizes the current public
mailing lists available:
The Paragons List
- The Paragons list is for the discussion of all things
Immortal. Narrators, Players, Publishers, and just about anyone with an interest in
the game can talk about its various facets.
- To subscribe to the list, simply send an email to
paragons-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, once we have
had a chance to make sure you are a real e-mail account and not some form of
spam or solicitation, you will be joined to the group and can begin posting
immediately.
- Once you have subscribed you can go to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/paragons/ and
modify your membership if you have a Yahoo Groups account.
The Immortal RPG List
- The Immortal RPG list is used to run short
term online email-based games. Anyone may join, but not everyone may
post.
- To subscribe to the list, simply send an email to
immortalrpg-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, once we
have had a chance to make sure you are a real e-mail account and not some
form of spam or solicitation, you will be joined to the group. You
will not be able to post unless you are part of a current game.
- Once you have subscribed you can go to
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/immortalrpg/
and modify your membership if you have a Yahoo Groups account.
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(back to top) Have a question? See our
Contact Page.
For questions concerning actual game play, rules clarifications and corrections,
see the Errata page.
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Q: What is Immortal Invisible War?
- A: A role playing game developed
in the late 1980's by artist Ran Valerhon and originally published
in 1993 by Precedence Publishing. You can find out more on
our "What is Immortal?" page.
Q: What do the Immortal Invisible War
books cost?
- A: Nothing, the game is
distributed as free downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF files
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader,
a free product from Adobe). In fact we encourage you to
post the game books to other sites to make available for
download there. You simply need to note the original site
(www.invisiblewar.com)
where the file came from and make no changes to the book files
(they are copyrighted material).
The website accepts donations through PayPal to assist in
funding the website, but there is no mandatory cost for the game
books.
Q: What is the current version of
Immortal?
- A: The current version of
Immortal is 3rd Edition, the timeline in the canon Immortal
game-universe is roughly one year behind real-world time.
Q: What is a Narrator?
- A: The Narrator runs the game,
sets the scene, develops and plays the other characters aside
from the ones the players create and play. Whether it is a
major antagonist or a bit-player in a scene, the Narrator is
responsible for providing the details of the world the players'
characters interact in, as well as the motivations and
personality for the other characters the players' characters
will meet and interact with. He is director, actor, and
partial script writer. Many games refer to this person as
the gamemaster. However, Immortal is meant to feel more
like an epic movie than a paper-and-pen based game. We
avoid the use of that term.
Q: Is Immortal rules-light or rules-heavy?
- A: The first half of the Player's
Guide provides a rich introduction to the Immortal game
universe, it contains no mechanics. In that sense it is a
very rules-light game where story, drama and character growth --
outside of paper statistics -- are the main focus. It
provides enough inspiration and ideas for players to develop
interesting and unique characters. Roughly one-third of
the Narrator's Guide is also full of non-mechanics information
to allow the Narrator and players to build on that.
However, the Narrator's Guide also provides a large amount of
advanced rules and game mechanics; if you need them there are
rules for explosions, falling, fire, martial arts, building
custom magical powers, optional combat and skill rules, etc.
This allows players to give add a light sense of realism to
their game, or they can be ignored completely to allow for those
larger than life characters and scenes that you'd expect from
epic literature and other media.
Q: Is Immortal "term" heavy?
- A: In terms of mechanics no, an
action is an action, a round is a round, much the same as in any
other role playing game; we didn't see a need to reinvent the
wheel. However, Immortal does have its own campaign
universe and setting, and there are terms used for that.
However, most of the terms used are actually pulled from common
usage. For example, the supernatural disadvantages a
character might have normally go by the simple term of "curses".
In this way, terms that need to be learned are kept to a minimum
of those highly specific to the Immortal game universe.
Other terms that you'd expect to find across multiple game
genres tend are the same as in those other genres, so you can
quickly remember them.
Q: What is the Great Betrayal?
- A: The Great Betrayal is an event
in the canon game-universe. During this event, one of the
larger factions of the himsati race, the Anopheles, turned
traitor and divulged the secrets of their brother and sister
factions to the Droves (other immortals who are the enemies of
the Twelve Tribes). This led to the wholesale destruction
of many of the sanctuaries of the tribes and led to a the
Betrayal War, a very brief violent period lasting from late 1999
to early 2003. Afterwards, the various members of the
himsati race reconvened in the mythical realm of Atlantis and
officially formed the Twelve Tribes. Prior to the Great
Betrayal the Twelve Tribes were known as the Prides of the
Stratagem: a jaded set of factions mostly intent on
dominating one another through contests of combative
one-upmanship and political influence. The time period of
the Great Betrayal takes place in the 2nd Edition of Immortal
known as Immortal Millennium.
Q: Is there any relation between
Immortal Invisible War and the movie, television show, video game
or music band also known as Immortal?
- A: No, there is no relation. An idea was pitched
for an television series to the same company that produced the
Babylon 5 television series. However, the then-publisher
of the game, Precedence Entertainment -- went out of business.
Q: What are the currently available
products for Immortal?
- A: There is a 248 page Player's
Guide, the 270 page Narrator's Guide, and the Immortal Character
Sheet. All are available as free PDF downloads from this
website's Downloads section.
There are no physical in-print books for 3rd Edition.
Books for prior editions can usually be found circulating on the
net, through various auction sites, and as part of some older
stock for various gaming, comic and books stores.
Q: Will there be physical books for
sale?
- A: No. Due to issues with the original publisher
over the creation of the 2nd Edition, the game's original
creator took back control of the product and a decision was made
to continue on with a 3rd Edition to clarify and rectify those
issues. As part of the decision and as a favor to
long-time fans and potential new fans, 3rd Edition is an
absolutely free publication with no cost, therefore at this time
it remains in downloadable electronic format only.
Q: Are there any plans for any future
releases?
- A: Yes, Tribal Law versus
Dragon's Rule will be the third and final core book for Immortal
Invisible War, detailing the Twelve Tribes of the Himsati, the
Droves, and other various groups (both human and immortal).
It will include their history, details on their culture.
There will be other releases, but until Tribal Law is near
completion, we are not going to speculate on what will be
released next; we are going to base it heavily on fan input.
Q: Does Immortal make use of
meta-plots?
- A: Yes ... and no. The original concept for
Immortal was developed by Ran Ackels as part of a free-form
role-playing game. A big fan of mythology in his art and
writing, Mr. Ackels does have his own Immortal story that he has
told through the game, but we do not believe that you -- as
Narrators and Players -- should be forced to simply retell that
story. So while a few plot developments that are key only
to Ran Valerhon's own story will not be revealed, all other
"meta-plots" will be revealed in the forthcoming "Tribal Law
versus Dragon's Rule" core sourcebook, so that Narrators have
any and all background material to explain the current state of
affairs in the Immortal game universe, but leave the room
necessary to forge ahead with their own stories.
Q: If there aren't really any meta-plots, how
does the canon timeline and story unfold?
- A: Immortal's canon timeline and story
unfolds based in large part on the input and game outcomes of
our fans. These have directed the story over the last decade.
For example, the events
behind the Great Betrayal, who turned traitor and who turned
away from the tribes, were based mostly on fan input: in
the original concept for the Great Betrayal campaign, it was the
Arachne who turned traitor and not the Anopheles. Fan
input caused it to be changed when everything was published
coming into 3rd Edition.
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